Frustration as Boksburg Stadium upgrades, again, the track
The Boksburg Stadium has been closed.
According to Ekurhuleni Metro ppokesperson Themba Gadebe, the city stadium will be going under major maintenance and upgrading of the synthetic athletic track.
The new-look stadium is scheduled to re-open in December.
- The Advertiser is, however, still inquiring into the supposed 2014 upgrading of the track, and if the track was upgraded three years ago why it is being upgraded again. In 2015 the Advertiser reported the upgrading of the new track was nearing completion. More details to follow on this query.
Frustrations
The facelift, however, has not been welcomed by sections of Boksburg sporting clubs, with the likes of the Boksburg Athletic Club (BAC), whose athletes use the track daily, and the Boksburg Football Club (BFC), largely affected by the closure.
“The closure of the stadium has had a huge impact on the club because, for one, the road-running section is used before and after a training run of any event the club organises,” said BAC chairwoman Amanda Harvey.
“The weekly parkrun is affected, with athletes not being able to use the toilet facilities before and after the run.
BAC on behalf of Central Gauteng Athletics hosts the Central Gauteng Cross Country Championships in August, and that’s hundreds of athletes impacted. Then there’s the 15km road race organised by BAC every October, which will also be affected
Harvey added that the BAC committee will be holding a meeting in the upcoming weeks where solutions to the hosting of the Central Gauteng Cross Country Championships and road race will top the agenda.
BFC head coach Melvin Kruger, whose ELFA Super League side train and play their home games at the venue, echoed Harvey’s sentiments.
“It has affected us quite badly,” lamented the trainer.
“It has affected our training; we couldn’t train for five weeks, which has shown in our recent results.
“We’ve since moved our training to PG Park but we also had problems there because senior players are not allowed to train there.
“We’ve been facing endless problems: the bottom field that we now use does not have any facilities and the pitch is not ideal.
“We’ve had to call off one of our night games because there’s no lighting at the bottom field. We’ve really been facing problems.”
Boksburg’s next home game will be against Randburg on July 1. Kick-off is at 3.30pm. – @SabeloBoksburg
